RICHARD KRUSE of Albion has been sentenced to ten years in state prison. Kruse, 68, had been found guilty of molesting young girls under the auspices of a girls only water ski club. Charges against Mrs. Kruse for allegedly attempting to dissuade a witness were dropped. The Kruses are long-time residents of Albion where Mrs. Kruse continues to live.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: BERNIE, starring Jack Black and Shirley Maclaine. A very funny movie with absolutely brilliant performances from everyone in a true story about a wacky assistant funeral director and a rich old lady. As I sat chortling throughout, I wondered why I'd never seen any of the supporting cast in other movies. But when the credits rolled I learned that except for three pros everyone in the thing lives in Carthage, Texas, where the events depicted took place. (Needless to say, the film is controversial in Carthage.) The only thing even remotely like Bernie is The Loved One, a comic masterpiece based on Evelyn Waugh's novel about America with an LA funeral business serving as metaphor for a country gone completely batshit. And that movie, with Liberace and Rod Steiger, was made in what, 1962?
RILEY KIESEL, 28, had been permanently 86'd from Dick's Place in Mendocino, so when he showed up Monday morning at Dick's a half hour before closing time, he was peacefully escorted off the premises by bartender Alexander Behounek, 32. Two hours later, about 3:20am, at the intersection of Little Lake and Lansing, Kiesel, apparently waiting for Behounek, to leave work, jumped in front of Behounek's car. Behounek then made the nearly fatal error of getting out of his car to confront Kiesel, at which point Kiesel stabbed Behounek once in the stomach. Deputies were quickly on the scene and located Kiesel nearby. Kiesel readily admitted to stabbing Behounek who was airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in apparently serious condition. Kiesel has a record of local arrests going back to 2004, which include charges of carrying concealed weapons, drunk in public and marijuana-related offenses. He is now charged with attempted murder with bail set at $200,000.
ACCORDING TO THE MINUTES of the April 26, 2012 meeting of the Mendocino Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO), the new Executive Director of LAFCO will be a Mr. Bruce Baracco (no relation to Baracko Bama). Mr. Baracco is currently a planning consultant at a one-person outfit called “Baracco and Associates” in Sutter Creek, a couple dozen dreary strip malls miles east of Sacramento. He was picked to lead LAFCO over the Mendocino County Employers Council Executive Director Tony Shaw. Shaw, who's a bit of a crank, as he would have to be given his association with the Ukiah-based Babbitts who comprise the Employer's Council, regularly complains about County government during public expression at Supervisors meetings. The Employer's Council's tedious political positions insist that Government is too big, too expensive, doesn't often enough consult them, the clear-eyed captains of local free enterprise.
SHAW'S HOSTILITY for local government apparently does not extend to a highly paid government sinecure at LAFCO worth about 90 grand annually for doing, well, basically, nothing. LAFCO sets special district boundaries for services like sewage, water, fire protection, but these little fiefdoms were set up years ago, so all the guy in charge has to do is make sure they're delivering the services they were created to deliver.
BARACCO will replace Frank McMichael, a former Supervisor and former LA cop and a former Navy man, perhaps Mendocino County's champion triple dipper, and maybe quadruple dipper if LAFCO issues him yet one more government retirement check. McMichael, it goes without saying, is a conservative.
BUT UNLIKE his soul bros at the Employer's Council, McMichael is a pretty smart guy. He was a good, if overpaid, bureaucrat in the LAFCO job, and he was the only official in Mendo County with the guts to tell the Board of Supervisors back in 2009 that there wasn’t enough water in the Ukiah Valley to support major development projects. So, here we go with another Tichinin look-alike, this Baracco guy, selected by a committee of libs, hence, perhaps, the affection for a Tichinin-like figure.
THE LAFCO meeting minutes provide more than the usual snippet about the hiring process: “Agenda Item 3 - Interviews For One Or More Persons For The LAFCO Executive Officer Position: After roll call, Chair [Richard] Shoemaker [former Supervisor and now on the County’s retirement board as well, a fact retirees don't find reassuring, explained the process as to how the two interviewee firms had been chosen and explained the expected process for today's interviews. You'd have thought they were selecting the new Pope, although it was clearly a done deal for Baracco given the libs hostility for the Employer's Council.
"LACO and Associates [Mssrs. Shaw and Rouda] Interview At 10:30 a.m. E.O. [Frank] McMichael escorted LACO personnel Randy Rouda [of the Eureka-based company] and Tony Shaw [LACO’s Ukiah Associate] into the Riesling Room for their interview. For approximately an hour the Commission questioned the two regarding their proposal and qualifications to provide Executive Officer services. Baracco and Associates Interview At 11:45, upon direction of the Chair, E.O. McMichael escorted Bruce Baracco and his staff into the Riesling Room for their interview. For approximately an hour the Commission questioned Baracco and Associates regarding their proposal and qualifications to provide Executive Officer services. Subsequent to completion of the interviews, the Commission discussed their responses to the interviewees and their relative ranking. During this discussion, Commissioner McCowen departed the meeting at 1:00 p.m. for another meeting but before he left he indicated that he supported additional contract discussion with Baracco and Associates. At 1:20 p.m. Commissioner Rodin [Ukiah City Councilperson] also departed for another meeting but before departure indicated that her preference was Baracco and Associates. After additional discussion by the remaining commissioners, Commissioner Hammerstrom [Fort Bragg city Councilman], seconded by Commissioner [Guiness] McFadden [public citizen], moved that the Executive Committee enter into discussions with Baracco and Associates for a possible contract and that Chair Shoemaker serve as the point person for the contact. The motion was approved on the following roll call vote: McFadden, Hammerstrom, Hamburg, [Michael] Kisslinger [husband of First Five Executive Director Anne Molgard] and Chair Shoemaker."
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The whole world is hanging by its fingernails, refusing to be dragged into the future. That future is all about contraction. We could navigate our way into it but we don't want to. We want to stay right where we are with all our stuff and no need to make new arrangements and we are trying every last trick to do that. Can you not sense a terrible tidal surge of implacable forces under the headlines' placid surface?” (James Kunstler)
GOVERNOR BROWN said last week if his November tax initiative doesn't pass he’ll shorten the school year by a month. What Brown doesn't say is that his proposed cuts to school appropriations represent about twice what the schools would get from his tax increase. And part of the tax increase, if it passes, will go to fortify the teacher's pension fund, which is about $64 billion short.
MEANWHILE, the secure sectors of the upper middleclass continue to flee the public schools, as they are doing in Ukiah, choosing Ukiah's Redwood Academy over Ukiah's junior and senior high schools. Redwood Academy is a charter school established in 2000 with a current enrollment of 140 students from 7th through 12th grade. The class days are more than 7 hours long, and the school enforces a dress code.
I BELONG TO AARP to get Medi-Gap coverage, not because I don't know that AARP is basically an insurance sales force and a slave to the worst elements of the Democratic Party. The phony "senior's" organization is also a major obstacle to single-payer, sells its membership lists to other hustler attempting to rip off the elderly, and has come out for Medicare “reform.” Every time I get a sales pitch from AARP, I amuse myself by writing an abusive reply, and I mean abusive, complete with strings of the most creative obscenities I can devise. I never hear back, but I finally got a generic response AARP probably reserves for its most persistent cranks:
“DEAR MR. ANDERSON: Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us. While our goal is to act on behalf of our membership at large, I hope you can appreciate that with such a diverse membership; we are unable to craft a single policy directive in agreement with every member. Our membership demographic includes, among other variables, men and women from several political parties including Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and other third-party affiliations, an array of nationalities, incomes, and educational backgrounds, the employed and the retired. We work hard in the federal and state legislatures to advocate for our members, their families and society as a whole. We certainly appreciate communications such as yours because they help us know how to spend our time and resources on behalf of the 50+ population. I have taken note of your views; member feedback is reported to our leadership on a regular basis. While we may disagree on this issue, it is our hope that you find the many services, products, and other issues that AARP is engaged in beneficial to you and your family. Thank you again for writing and please continue to share your opinions with us. It is the combined interest, energy and commitment from members like you that gives AARP the power to make life better. Sincerely, Colin W., Member Communications”
“COLIN W.” I love that. What's the 'W' stand for, Wuss? What Colin W. should have said: “Dear Mr. Anderson. We're really tired of your demented responses to our tireless efforts to help you find great deals on denture glue and the other fine products we recommend to you and the rest of the senile suckers on our mailing list. We hope your bedpan blows up and your catheter runs from your peenie out your nose so you can really have something to bitch about at the Anderson Valley Senior Center. But seriously, you either end your abusive bullshit or we'll send someone out to Boonville to end YOU. Got that, gramps? Sincerely Colin W.”
EDWARD TWO-FEATHERS STEELE, 22, was arrested Saturday in south Ukiah for battery and committing a hate crime. He also was in violation of his parole, according to Ukiah police who said that a drunken Steele shouted homophobic insults at a passerby then ran up on the man and repeatedly punched him in the face. Several shocked eyewitnesses said Steele then ran into a Mulberry Street residence where Ukiah police found him “hiding” in a bathtub.
JUST IN FROM THE NATO PROTEST: “We attended the National Nurses United protest on Friday and the Anti War yesterday. I have never seen so many cops in my life as I saw yesterday: Chicago cops, state police, National Guard, so many in riot gear. We were told there were 11,000. If the preliminary reports were right and there were 10,000 protesters, then that's more than one police officer for each of us. It was stunning and frightening. But peaceful — except for those mostly testosterone fueled Labrador brains who acted out when most of us were leaving. We headed toward Chinatown for a meal, four blocks away, and could see the violence on the TV screen in the bar, even before we had been served. It really was a shame. I've participated in a fair number of protests over the years and it strikes me that the difference between protesting in your 20s and in your 50s is ego. In your 50s it's really about the issue(s), period. In your 20s it's also about YOU. All in all, I think it's the nurses who will really get things going, and we were proud to stand with them. And, for us, it was worth walking 14 miles (the day's tally) in 90 degree heat to connect with all of the peaceful folks who were there, acting up.”
THE COUNTY’S budget report, released earlier this week, shows a miraculous balance of a little more $2 million. The sudden appearance in the fiscal black is due mostly to a one-time award of $957,230 from tobacco settlement funds, $500,000 from a solid waste fee, $439,187 in replacement taxes from the Williamson Act, and $187,256 from selling fixed assets. This is all one-time money. Staff layoffs, employee givebacks and a hiring freeze have also improved the County’s bottom line. At this time last year, Mendo was dangerously in the red and unable to borrow at other than ruinous interest rates.
BUT COUNTY RETIREMENT costs continue to increase as do employee health outlays. Tax revenues have not increased and, as always, employment in the County remains stagnant with virtually no new enterprise begun.
MANBEATER of the decade? Kelisha S. Alvarez, 23, and Scotty L. Willis, 28, were both arrested last Friday when they went toe-to-toe at the Pear Tree Shopping Center, Ukiah. Kelisha is 5’2” and 385 pounds. She’s said to be enormously powerful and quite agile for her bulk. She also tends to resort immediately to violence at the slightest provocation, and she's easily provoked. Kelisha's love interest, Scotty, is frequently love-struck you could say, as he was Friday when he made the mistake of irritating his volcanic girlfriend and the fun couple came to blows. Kelisha quickly had Scotty on the run and pounding on the door at Ross Dress For Less for someone to please call the cops. Someone did, and soon the Ukiah PD was on-scene to arrest the lovebirds for two-party domestic violence.
KELISHA AND SCOTTY are well-known to Ukiah law enforcement. They were featured in a recent AVA after they were arrested in the emergency room of the Ukiah Valley Medical Center for roughing up hospital staff. They'd gone to ER to watch television in the ER's waiting area. They have also been carted off from the County Courthouse after claiming they’re either suffering or are about to suffer epileptic seizures. Kelisha regularly menaces the clerks and receptionists at local helping agencies, and episodes involving the couple have often tied up Ukiah’s limited emergency services, as the two of them, Kelisha and/or Scotty or both, eat up hours of police and court time, not to mention the pure anxiety the always belligerent Kelisha inspires in the men and women who have to deal with her.
MENDOCINO BOOK COMPANY will host an author reading and cherry pie buffet on Saturday June 30 from 2-4pm to launch "Memories From Cherry Harvest" by local author Amy Wachspress. In celebration of the publication of her book, Amy intends to open and share several jars of her long-hoarded Butler Cherry Ranch cherries, preserved in 1998, the last year the ranch was open for cherry-pickers. Amy says, “The Butler Cherry Ranch inspired my use of the cherry harvest to symbolize life’s abundance in my book. If you have never tasted a Butler cherry or you thought you would never taste one again in your life, then here is your unexpected chance to bite into one of George’s cherries. Never say never! Sometimes something we think is gone forever comes back to us.” … “When I remember Russia, I ache with longing for the village of my birth, where the beloved grandparents magically produced candy in a handshake and told stories of long ago when God spoke to humans and enchantments filled the world.” So begins Memories from Cherry Harvest, a family saga spanning 70 years painted on the broad canvas of nations at war and in peace. Despite the challenges and heartbreak of unfolding events, three generations of women insist on celebrating life’s bounty as babies are born, children raised, men loved, friendships forged, and cherry pies baked. Memories from Cherry Harvest is a spiritual quest that explores the physics of memory and demonstrates how the tenacity of the human spirit can ultimately withstand and overcome the memory of tragedy. On June 30th, Amy will share the story of her path to publication, which she characterizes as “miraculous.” Memories from Cherry Harvest is being published by Counterpoint Press of Berkeley, California as the 2011 winner of the Frances Fabri Literary Prize. A Holocaust survivor, Fabri spearheaded efforts in the US to record survivor stories, creating the interviewing protocols that were widely used to record survivor memories. Amy’s book, loosely based on family stories, is the first Fabri prizewinner to include a Holocaust theme as a central part of the story. Amy is the author of the award-winning children’s fantasy adventure The Call to Shakabaz (Woza Books, 2007). She and her husband Ron Reed (better known locally as “DJ Reed” for his KZYX Saturday night radio show “In the Groove”) raised their three children on 40 acres of remote forest at McNab Ranch. For more information about this event, contact Mendocino Book Company at 102 S. School Street in Ukiah. (707) 468-5940. For more information about Amy Wachspress or Memories from Cherry Harvest visit Amy’s website at www.wozabooks.com.
GUESS WHO the Willits schools will hire to lead its “national search for educational excellence” now that the Willits superintendent is moving down the road to run the Ukiah schools? Leadership Associates. The very same “executive search firm” who found Willits' Deb Kubin for Ukiah. Shall the circle be unbroken!
THE WILLITS SCHOOL BOARD voted unanimously at its Tuesday meeting to pay Leadership Associates $21,000 to recruit candidates for the job of Willits’ superintendent and, as with Ukiah, you can be excused for wondering why edu-dollars are paid out for a task the school board is elected to do.
ACCORDING to the report in the Willits News by Jennifer Poole, the Willits trustees modestly laid out what they expect in an educational leader: “A record of demonstrated success in student achievement; a master's degree in education [roughly equivalent to a diploma in mumbly peg, the diff being that success in mumbly requires elementary hand-eye coordination]; eagerness and enthusiasm; a focus on all the different kinds of children we have and how to meet their needs; a small town mentality,’ [exit Socrates from the candidate pool]; ‘approachability, or an ability to relate well to everyone in the community; strong leadership skills; an understanding of special education; an understanding of how to work collaboratively and get support from others; and strong support for technology.”
WOW! But I know just the guy. He’s kinda expensive, a little weak in vocab, but he’s just down the road at Talmage — Paul Tichinin! At 21 grand a bargain!
THE FOLLOWING are two bits of timely dialogue from the excellent and timely movie, ‘Margin Call.' The first is from a vulpine CEO of a hedge fund, the second from one of his vulpine assistants: “If you really want to do this with your life you have to believe that you’re necessary. And you are. People want to live like this in their oversize cars and their big fucking houses that they can’t even pay for? Then you’re necessary. The only reason they all get to continue living like kings is because we’ve got our fingers on the scales in their favor. I take my hand off and the whole world gets really fucking fair really fucking quickly and nobody actually wants that. They say they do but they don’t. They want what we have to give them, but they also want to play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from. That’s more hypocrisy than I’m willing to swallow. Fuck them. Fuck normal people.”
VULTURE NUMBER TWO: “Yeah. I earned $2.5 million last year. Sure. I spent it quite quickly. You learn to spend what’s in your pocket. First the tax man takes half upfront. So you’re left with $1.25 million. My mortgage takes another $300k. I send $150k home for my parents, you know, keep them going. What’s that? $800k? $150k on a car. About $75k on restaurants. Probably $50k on clothes. And I put $400k away for a rainy day. That leaves $125k. Oh, I did spend $77k on hookers, booze and dancers. Mainly hookers. $77k was a little shocking initially. But then I realized I could claim most of that back as entertainment. It’s true!”
MEMO OF THE WEEK: From a letter from Craig Stehr, a man perpetually on the prowl for love in all the wrong places: “Thank you for contributing in the way you have been. It's important work. I appreciate what you are doing, and I hope that your contribution is acknowledged in your community as well. Based on your email, I believe you may have a misunderstanding about surrogate partner therapy. One works with a surrogate partner (what you refer to in your email as a sex surrogate) as part of ongoing therapy to correct debilitating social, relational or sexual dysfunctions. Surrogate partner therapy is not intended to give someone the opportunity to have sexual intercourse. Also, a surrogate partner will only have sessions with you if you are also seeing a therapist. I will assume, and correct me if I'm wrong, that surrogate partner therapy is not what you are looking for and wish you all the best in finding an opportunity for sexual expression. — Sincerely Andrew Heartman, Secretary International Professional Surrogates Association PS. Since they referred you, I will copy San Francisco Sex Information on this to inform them as well."
CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS were due last week. Few surprises. Congressman Mike Thompson has raised $1.2 million dollars in his campaign to defeat nobody for his new seat to the south and east of us. Can't say he'll be missed because we have his younger version in Assemblyman Jared Huffman, who still leads the dash for cash in the race to succeed Thompson in this area, having raised a million bucks. Stacey Lawson is still writing checks to herself from her personal fortune, and has raised about $900,000 from herself. Norman Solomon, who lacks Lawson's personal wealth and Huffman's corporate and pac connections, is in third place with about $600,000, much of it raised from national progressives, including show biz and music people. (Every time I see one of those groupie-like lists of musicians and actors saying they're for this or that candidate, I'm sorely tempted to vote for someone else. But Solomon has been a good guy for a long time, sooooo…) But if Solomon weren't in the race I'd go for Susan Adams who has raised a mere $200,000 and isn't supported by rich hippies who play the drums or act in bad movies. Adams can't keep up with Big Slut, the corporate, pac and show biz money, but she's very good on the issues and, as an RN, you know she's worked hard at a hard job and that she's a reality-based, sensible person. Hmmm. I may just have talked myself into voting for her.
ASSEMBLY MEMBER WES CHESBRO, who has seemingly represented this area since he emerged from the womb and has never held a non-public job, has upwards of $100,000 cash on hand while his main challenger, Tom Lynch of Guerneville, has raised less than $4,000. If Chesbro is re-elected he will be able to retire in place since he will be termed out from further service in the Assembly or the Senate but, of course, will move on to some other tax-funded sinecure.
IN THE ONLY LOCAL RACE OF INTEREST, Supervisor John McCowen, running for a second term as Ukiah-area rep, has raised a modest $6,000 and spent $4,000, mostly for a campaign mailer. Aside from the mailer, McCowen's main message is carried by his homemade signs which blanket Ukiah. By contrast, Andrea Longoria, the disgruntled County employee running against McCowen, has raised nearly $17,000 and spent $15,000. Both candidates say they support the local economy, but McCowen spent his campaign money here at home while Longoria spent $8,875 for campaign literature and mailings with a company (probably selected for her by SEIU) based in South Pasadena. McCowen employed Willits Printing and a mailing service in Ukiah. When candidates go outside the local area for their mailers it is a reliable indicator that someone else is calling the shots for them, in this case SEIU and perhaps that local political mastermind, Joe Louis Wildman.
SEIU AND AFFILIATED LABOR UNIONS have given Longoria $14,000 of their member's money simply to pursue McCowen. Longoria is the Chief Steward and Negotiator for the SEIU bargaining unit which represents the County employees who work in social services and a few smaller offices. She is also the Mendocino County Area Representative on the Oakland SEIU Executive Board, which makes the decisions on how much money to hand out to their endorsed candidates. Longoria's SEIU connections, and her single issue focus on getting the recent pay cut overturned, raise serious questions about conflict of interest. Will Longoria, an SEIU negotiator, be allowed to sit in on Supervisors’ strategy sessions during SEIU labor negotiations?
LONGORIA IS ALSO BACKED by the Pinoleville Pomo Nation (PPN) which kicked in $1,312. PPN has big plans for an Indian casino just north of Ukiah, next to Ackerman Creek, on the former site of Ken Fowler Motors. Reliable sources say the tribe, supported by outside gambling interests, has been paying $30,000 monthly for an option on the property, with only $5,000 going as a credit against the eventual sale of the property, meaning the Indians are getting ripped off big time, and what else is new in Mendocino County, historically considered. Leona Williams took over as tribal chair of PPN about 20 years ago and has succeeded in disenrolling just about everyone except members of her extended family. If the casino goes forward, PPN will need to negotiate an agreement with the County to mitigate impacts to traffic and for increased law enforcement. PPN no doubt thinks it would be useful to have a personal vote on the Board of Supes, but the donation to Longoria presents an obvious conflict of interest.
THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S POLITICAL CAUCUS has also donated $1,000 to Longoria, apparently on the theory that any woman is better than any man. (The local chapter would be sure to support Eva Braun over Abe Lincoln.) The debauched Mendo chapter of this otherwise honorable national entity long ago became the tool of a few ethically challenged Democratic Party hackettes and one de-balled hack, the aforementioned Wildman. The Mendo NWPC is three persons — Wildman, Val Muchowski and Mary Anne Villwock.
TWO YEARS AGO the NWPC failed to support Wendy Roberts for Fifth District Supervisor against Dan Hamburg because Wildman, who controls the NWPC endorsement process, was for Hamburg and against Roberts. This time, Wildman, who opposes McCowen solely on the basis of his vote for contracting out, or “privatizing,” operation of six small solid waste transfer stations, has swung NWPC behind the thinly qualified Longoria. $16,412 of the $16,767 raised by Longoria comes from NWPC and the union and tribal interests that are backing her. Only $355 comes from real people with real names. In any case, you never hear from the Mendo NWPC except at election time when it suddenly activates itself.
McCOWEN & LONGORIA appeared on KZYX's Access Show with Norman deVall last Friday. Longoria kept saying the County is “hemorrhaging” money, but when contracting out operation of the transfer stations came up, she said she was 100% opposed to “privatization.” McCowen pointed out that contracting out the operation of the transfer stations saved the County $500,000 a year and has improved service. The County contracted out these money-losing trash operations to a reputable and long-time local businessman, Jerry Ward of Willits who apparently operates the facilities at a profit. (The privatized transfer operation here in Boonville has managed to lower dump rates and is praised by its attendant, Willie Housley, as a good place to work.)
LONGORIA WENT ON to say the County should have continued the operation of its transfer stations to bring in revenue for the County. But they weren't making money, they were losing lots. McCowen pointed out that Fort Bragg, which jointly owns the Caspar transfer station on the Coast, considered taking over operation of Caspar but concluded it would cost Fort Bragg $100,000 a year to operate even if the rates were increased. The other five transfer stations combined, scattered widely around the County, have only half the total volume of the transfer stations and are even less economical to operate than Caspar.
WHEN UNION REPS talk about local “privatization” you would think Halliburton and Blackwater were moving in on us. Solid Waste of Willits (SWOW), run by local Willits guy Jerry Ward, was portrayed as an evil corporate outsider. In fact, since SWOW took over operation of the transfer stations, they are cleaner and better maintained, and service and hours of operation have been increased. And the County is no longer paying $500,000 a year to subsidize them.
MCCOWEN & LONGORIA agreed that Costco would be good for Ukiah. Longoria went on to say that she was totally opposed to Wal-Mart, but her campaign statement, filed the day before showed that she spent several hundred dollars at the local Wal-Mart for so-called campaign paraphernalia. Longoria also claimed $342.70 spent for gas at the Quick Stop on Airport Park Boulevard was “campaign paraphernalia.” According to the Fair Political Practices Commission, campaign paraphernalia is supposed to include such things as lawn signs, buttons and bumper stickers. No mention of gasoline. And how do you spend $342.70 on gas to drive around Ukiah? When it comes to travel reimbursements, Kendall Smith may have met her match.
DAN GJERDE & REX GRESSETT were also on the Access Show. Gjerde is running to replace Kendall Smith, who is retiring in disgrace following her forced re-imbursement of a portion of the travel funds she had illegally diverted to herself. Gjerde was unopposed until a couple of weeks ago when Gressett qualified as a write in candidate. Sounding rather scattered, Gressett accused Gjerde of being a shill for Georgia Pacific's development plans for the old GP mill site. Gjerde patiently explained that the future of the mill site would be determined by a community process and it would undoubtedly go through changes as it wended its way through hearings at the Planning Commission, City Council and Coastal Commission.
WHEN A CALLER ASKED about MCOG and LAFCO, Gressett said he could take the question and then veered off into gibberish, making it clear he'd never heard of them. When deVall tried to reel him back in Gressett admitted he didn't know anything about MCOG. When Gjerde had his chance he succinctly described MCOG and LAFCO, a couple of joint powers agencies, and their roles in local government. (Alert opposition to Gjerde, who sits on the MCOG Board, might question the existence of these undemocratic entities, especially the way they obligate taxpayers to expenditures without taxpayer approval.)
WHEN DE VALL encouraged the candidates to question each other, Gjerde asked Gressett if he'd recently pled guilty to hitting someone in the mouth, and had he ever been arrested. Gressett, with refreshing candor, responded that he had indeed pled guilty to punching a signature gatherer in the mouth, allegedly for pestering a child, and he also said that he had been arrested a few other times for punching people in the face. Given the constant provocations of local government, Gressett would be slugging people at every meeting.
FRONT PAGE HED from the Thursday, May 24th edition of the Ukiah Daily Journal: “100 pot plants found in Willits home.” In other news that day, the sun rose in the east and the dish ran away with the spoon.
A FLURRY of worried stories, which seemed to have been inspired by the Farm Bureau, conclude that there's a looming shortage of ag workers. Fewer immigrants are coming across the border because of immigration crackdowns, the Mexican population is aging, and drug wars make the border areas even more hazardous than they normally are for people coming across hoping to find work in Gringolandia; all these factors combine for a shortage of exploitable farm workers.
ACCORDING to the Pew Research Center, of the 1.2 million people employed in agriculture-related jobs in the United States, 70% are undocumented, but only an estimated 375,000 people left Mexico for the United States from November 2010 to November 2011 compared to the 1.05 million people who made the journey five years earlier.
THE PEW CENTER says it costs an immigrant $2,500 to $3,000 for a coyote to get them across the border in one piece.
WE KNOW that County grape growers had trouble last season filling harvest crews because farm workers only tend to do the work for one generation. Their American born or American-ized children find better paid labor. The Farm Bureau types claim that Americans won't do field labor even at triple the minimum wage.
A PRESS RELEASE from the crucial Held-Poage Memorial Home and Research Library in Ukiah reminds us that Mendocino County's only comprehensive historical archive is open to the public Wednesday through Friday, from 1 to 4 p.m. The library is located at 603 W. Perkins St. in Ukiah. Held-Poage not only contains most if not all the books ever published about Mendocino County, it houses family histories, genealogical research, the personal accounts of County veterans of the Civil War, World Wars I and II, a large collection of historical photos, and much material on Native Americans and local history. The library also has microfilm for county newspapers and census records. The computers have databases of birth, deaths, family histories and burials for Mendocino County. For more information, call 462-6969 or visit the Historical Society Web site.
SUPERVISOR KENDALL SMITH will be leaving the Board at the end of the year, having decided to depart under a cloud of her own making. Insisting for years she hadn't chiseled the taxpayers out of several thousand dollars in deliberately falsified travel reimbursements, Smith had to be threatened with prosecution by DA Eyster before finally re-paying the County some $3300, an amount estimated by successive grand juries to be much less than she actually owed. Fellow Democrat and former DA Meredith Lintott never quite got around to pressuring Smith to return the money.
LAST WEEK, Smith got off a final bogus travel request, basically the same request that got turned down last year 3-2. She wants to go out of state to the annual meeting of the National Association of Counties in Pittsburgh, PA. Natch, she wants Mendo to pay her way. Last year only Hamburg had agreed that Smith should get paid to go. Smith is expected to put her request on a forthcoming agenda for a vote, which we assume will again be 3-2 against.
OCCUPY MENDOCINO has been denied permission to hold meetings at the spacious Fort Bragg Senior Center. Which is odd because most of Coast's Occupiers are themselves fully certified geezers. It's not as if a gang of Black Bloc-ers wanted to use the place to assemble Molotov cocktails.
WE HADN'T HEARD anything about the FB Senior Center since that smarmy crook who used to run the place went off to become a lawyer, having taken preparatory classes in the Bay Area on the Center's dime. What was his name? Come on, come on, help me out here. You know him. Nasty little fat guy who used to go on about how much he loved the old folks when he really wanted to sell them for cat food? That guy. Joe something or other.
ACCORDING TO THE FB CENTER'S odd website, and I say 'odd' because it asks visitors “to report a random act of kindness” as committed by the boss or one of his trustees. We have to assume from the request to write in about how swell the bosses are, a request made against the purple graphic obligatory in the circumstances of both kindness bumperstickers and unicorns, that random acts of kindness are indeed serially committed by the leadership of the Fort Bragg Senior Center. Or they're such pricks that if they so much as say good morning it's newsworthy.
PLUNGING ON through the Center's purple website randoms, I learned that Charles Bush is now capo di tutti at the Center and there's an eight-person board of directors with Kathleen Johnson serving as president and two sensible women I happen to know — Gloria Liner and Phoebe Graubard — functioning as trustees. (Gloria! Phoebe! Surely you won't stand for this, this, this.... this fascism!)
I'VE WRITTEN in to ask why the Occupiers can't meet at the Fort Bragg Senior Center, and I'm perfectly prepared to report my request as a random act of kindness if someone will tell me why.
SO, LIKE, if the Senior Center won't let the Coast's tabby-tame Occupiers gather at the Center, why don't the Occupiers occupy the Senior Center? Maybe burn their AARP cards or toss a couple of walkers at a window?
FOR PURE MISGUIDEDNESS, political division, the Solomon campaign's mailer attacking Stacey Lawson is real dumb. A “progressive” like Solomon ought to be going after the corporate lib in the race, which is Huffman, not Ms. Silly Sally. And a progressive ought not to be getting out slick election-defiling mailers period, if the prog claims to represent the high road. So, Lawson might buy her way into the run-off against front runner Huffman, thus ending Solomon. I don't think so, but I guess the wizards advising Solomon think she might, hence these idiot mailers pointing out that she made a lot of money at an early age and she doesn't vote much. Solomon voters already knew that, so who's the mailer even aimed at? Us Solomon voters don't have to be reminded that Lawson is a major feeb, but she's smarter than the fools who put these things out.
THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE almost collapsed in 1987 during the 50th birthday of the most marvelous span in the world. The bridge authority had closed it for the day, inviting pedestrians to do a Frisco-to-Marin walk across as people did in 1937 when the Bridge opened. The diff between Americans of 1937 and Americans of 1987 is several million tons of Big Macs. The Americans of '37 were lithe and, ah, proportionate. The '87 Yanks are so fat they almost sank the whole show, crowding onto the Bridge in huge numbers, so many of them they couldn't move, and so many of them they flattened the structure in its vulnerable middle, the single span section. As the road surface flattened, the cable supports tilted inward, and the cables holding it all up got so tight they almost snapped. Only the installation of a lighter roadbed in '86 kept thousands of celebrants from plunging to their deaths. This terrifying near miss still doesn't seem to be well known. Kevin Starr's wonderful little book on the Bridge — Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge — is the definitive work. Starr summed up the near catastrophe this way: “It is virtually beyond comprehension to contemplate what might have occurred — possibly the greatest man-made accident in human history.”
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